Beware the Fall

 In today's blog, I will be talking about something that has been improving throughout the years and also improving our processes and our lives. It's called artificial intelligence. What is artificial intelligence? According to the Oxford Dictionary definition, artificial intelligence is: the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. So why is it relevant for fall prevention that I decided to include it in this blog? It's relevant because, artificial intelligence has become a part of the fall prevention solution like other areas that it has been implemented. I've talked about which fall prevention solutions utilize artificial intelligence as a part of their product solutions. Just to jog your memory though, artificial intelligence is mostly used with vision-based fall prevention solutions, but not all fall pr...

In today's blog, we will be talking about some tips and recommendations on how to prevent falls in seniors, especially if they are living independently.  Falls are most common in senior members of our population, and often people can be especially concerned if themselves or their loved ones might have a risk of falling due to age. Falls might cause serious injuries or even death, so I would like to inform about some tips on how to prevent falls if you are concerned about falling.       1. Check with your doctor      My first recommendation before getting into other tips is to initially make an appointment with your      doctor to get through some tests to figure out if you or your loved one is in the risk group of falling.         This can guide you in the right direction to rule out any risks or to keep in mind if you need to take           certain actions to prevent from falli...

 In our previous blog we talked about a fall prevention solution that was about telesitters. In this blog, I would like to inform briefly about the science behind falls and why it often occurs in elderly people more than younger people.  When we are young, our bodies are more dynamic and our reflexes are strong. We can prevent ourselves from falling once we stumble or lose balance. This is because our cognitive part of our brain is more responsive to threats therefore we prevent it when we lose our balance. Let's say you had a little too much to drink and your brain has slowed down, and it's less likely to respond to a threat in time when you lose your balance. This is almost similar to the general idea of why elderly people fall more often than younger people does. Not that older people drink more obviously, but because their reflexive and responsive part of their brains slow down as they age. You might think about how can you help your grandma or grandpa or even your elder s...

In our previous blog, we have talked about different fall prevention solutions. While we looked in to vision-based and pressure-based solutions, we did not do a deep dive into telesitters, which is another fall prevention solution.  Telesitting is a fall prevention solution which is an alternative to sitters that watch over patients constantly. Sitters are usually very costly for healthcare facilities and often require more staff. Telesitting companies have a product with camera that watches over patients and usually requires only one person to do the job instead of one sitter per room. With telesitting, one person can watch over 40 or more patients at a time, making it much more efficient and cost-effective. Below you can see an example of a telesitter product. Avasure Telesitter Telesitters are also good to connect patients with healthcare providers if the healthcare provider is only available virtually. It was specifically good for covid-patients during the pandemic, where some ...

In our previous blog we talked about what fall prevention was. In this blog, we will be looking at different fall prevention solutions in the industry and see where and how they are mostly utilized today. We will also try to explain how effective each one of them are. So let's dive in. Fall prevention solutions are not one size fits all. Different acute and post-acute care facilities use different solutions to target fall prevention in their respected communities. All in all, fall prevention can be split into two categories: vision-based, and pressure-based. We will first start with the vision-based fall prevention solutions. 1. VISION-BASED SOLUTIONS Vision-based solutions, as you can also tell by its name, use a kind of sensor or camera to detect movement to either send an alert before the fall happens or after the fall event happens. This totally depends on each company and their technology. However, in today's fall prevention industry, the most effective solution in this ca...

 In this blog, we will be discussing about what Fall Prevention really is and what are some prevention solutions that are used to prevent falls. When I hear Fall Prevention, I automatically think about helping older people and removing any obstacles so they don't fall. But it's much more complicated than that.  Fall Prevention is defined as, "guidelines and procedures adapted in order to identify person at risk of fall, and to provide preventive measures in order to reduce fall risk and thereby also to reduce falls and fall related injuries." As we get older, our risk of falling increases. Every elderly person has a fear of falling. However, there are measures to be taken to understand how much risk does a person have of falling and to improve mobility. First off, some nursing homes or senior care facilities have physical therapy rooms where they have a sensor that detects the fall risk and so the physical therapist recommends certain exercises to improve mobility. If...